Term
| Accounting and Auditing Enforcement Releases (AAERS) |
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Definition
| Releases concerning accounting and auditing enforcement published by the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. |
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Term
| Accounting Regulatory Committee (ARC) |
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Definition
| Committee composed of representatives from European Union member states and chaired by the European Commission, providing an opinion on European Commission proposals to adopt (endorse) an international accounting standard as envisaged under Article 3 of the IAS regulation. |
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Term
| Administrative law judges |
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Definition
| Professional hearing officer who works for the government to preside over hearings and appeals involving governmental agencies. |
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Term
| American Bar Association (ABA) |
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Definition
| The largest voluntary professional association in the world with more than 400,000 members, providing law school accreditation, continuing legal education, information about the law, programs to assist lawyers and judges in their work, and initiatives to improve the legal system for the public. |
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Term
| American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) |
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Definition
| The CPA professional organization in the United States. The AICPA’s mission is to promote and protect the profession of accounting. |
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Term
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Definition
| Those who argue that a corporation is not a typical contract subject to extensive government regulation and view the corporation as a concession of the state. |
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Term
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Definition
| Any period of more than three consecutive trading days during which the ability of at least 50 percent of the participants or beneficiaries of the company’s account plans to trade (purchase, sell, acquire, or transfer) any equity security of the plans is temporarily suspended by the company or by a fiduciary of the plans. |
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Term
| California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) |
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Definition
| Provides pension fund and other retirement services for 1.4 million California public employees and is the largest pension fund in the United States. |
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Term
| Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) |
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Definition
| An independent committee of European Securities Regulators, established in 2001, to ensure efficient and effective functioning of the European capital market. |
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Term
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Definition
| Those who are skeptical of the possibility of grounding morality or political authority in either divine will or some perfectionist ideal of the nature of humanity. |
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Term
| Council of Institutional Investors (CII) |
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Definition
| The Council of Institutional Investors is an organization of large public, labor, and corporate pension funds that seeks to address investment issues that affect the size or security of plan assets and to encourage member funds, as major shareholders, to take an active role in protecting plan assets and to help members increase return on their investments as part of their fiduciary obligations. |
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Term
| European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) |
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Definition
| The technical expert group providing technical endorsement advice to the European Commission and the Accounting Regulatory Committee (ARC). |
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Term
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Definition
| The common set of accounting principles, standards, and procedures that companies use to compile their financial statements. GAAP are a combination of authoritative standards (set by policy boards) and simply the commonly accepted ways of recording and reporting accounting information. |
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Term
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Definition
| A set of systematic guidelines used by auditors when conducting audits on companies’ finances, ensuring the accuracy, consistency, and verifiability of auditors’ actions and reports. |
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Term
| Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB) |
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Definition
| Establishes financial accounting and reporting standards for state and local government entities. |
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Term
| International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) |
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Definition
| Independent, privately funded accounting standard setter based in London that establishes accounting standards in providing guidance on how particular types of transactions and other events should be reflected in financial statements. |
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Term
| Investment Protection Principles (IPPs) |
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Definition
| Principles established to protect investors by regulating broker dealers and investment managers. |
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Term
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Definition
| Advisory resource that will provide the Financial Accounting Standards Board with sector-specific insight and expertise from the professional investment community on relevant accounting issues. |
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Term
| Office of Risk Assessment |
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Definition
| Office established by the SEC to assist the commission in better anticipating, finding, and mitigating areas of significant financial risk and potential fraud. |
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Term
| Self-Regulatory Organization (SRO) |
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Definition
| Nongovernmental entity that represents registrants and is organized for the purpose of regulating the operations and standards of practice and business conduct. |
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Term
| U.S. Sentencing Commission (USSC) |
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Definition
| Commission created by Congress with the authority to issue guidelines for punishing organizations, including companies that have committed federal crimes. It establishes sentencing policies and practices for the federal courts. |
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